1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and systems for cleaning under a person's fingernails. More specifically, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods for mechanically and/or chemically cleaning dirt, grease or other foreign materials that may be lodged within the gap or crevice under a person's fingernails.
2. The Relevant Technology
In this modern world we are constantly being judged by our appearance. Whether it is our personality, intelligence, wit, or good demeanor we want to emphasize and be judged by, personal hygiene seems to play an even bigger role than ever before notwithstanding our other traits. Today, hard work and industry are not enough for a man to impress others. Gone are the days of old when a man could come home to his wife after a hard day's work, smelling of foul odors and being covered from head to toe in dirt, with no negative repercussion. Instead, we live in a highly sanitized and glamorized society in which images of finely dressed and well coifed models are continuously being thrust into our view as well as our collective psyche.
In the interplay between individuals, especially in the often competitive world of dating, romance, and career advancement, one of the first things that people notice and form impressions from is the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of another's fingernails. When I speak of cleanliness of fingernails, I refer not so much to the outer surface of the fingernail but rather to the gap or crevice between the tips of the fingernails and the underlying skin of the fingertip. Much about an individual can supposedly be divined based on the relative cleanliness of the individual's fingernails, such as one's perceived social class, vocation, hygienic habits, intelligence, and manners, not to mention recent activities. In general, the dirtier the fingernails, the more negative will be the assessment of an individual. The only time when dirty fingernails might be called for is when a project foreman wants to know how hard a particular worker has been working. Among the working classes a man might be adjudged to be effeminate if he is too fastidious about cleaning his fingernails.
For thousands of years people have been fighting dirty fingernails much like they hunted wild game in cave-man days--manually, with the blade of a knife. While this may work in some cases, such as where the dirt is easily dislodged, it presupposes a certain level of coordination while handling a knife. Once again, today's modern man is both better educated and less adept with a knife. For today's man, there are brushes that can be manually manipulated to scrub and clean the gap under the fingernails. Nevertheless, the brushing action requires at least a minimal amount of coordination and a high amount of concentration and patience due to the tendency of the brush to slip out of proper alignment with the fingernails. The hassle of cleaning dirt or grease from underneath the fingernails, coupled with the tendency of dirt to simply fall or be pushed out over time, has led many to simply ignore the problem, or even live in shame for a day or two with dirty fingernails.
Sadly, many a man who imagined himself a landscape artist or handy mechanic by day has suffered rejection and ridicule by the woman (or man) in his life by night when it came time to put on the evening clothes in preparation for a night out on the town. The unsightly and unmanicured look of "grease monkey hands" has put a damper on more than a few formal evenings. Regardless of a man's (or woman's) true social status, there have been many anxious moments as dirty fingernails were surreptitiously hidden in order to avoid their attendant negative social implications, only to rear their ugly heads at inopportune moments.
While scrubbing machines have been developed for the hands and fingers in general, such machines have been too crude and nonspecific to provide cleaning of the most difficult place to reach--the gap or crevice under the fingernails. For example, the following patents describe scrubbing machines that have some kind of mechanical brushing action to cleanse the hands and, in some cases, the fingers of an individual: U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,971 to Springmann; U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,968 to Buckley; U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,324 to Thomas, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,908 to Alcamo; and U.S. Pat. No. 3.066,336 to Stobbe. Whereas each of the foregoing patents discloses some mode of automatically cleaning a person's hands and/or fingers by automated brushing, none teaches or even suggests that the various apparatus disclosed in the foregoing patents have any utility for cleaning in the gap under a person's fingernails. Thoroughly cleaning one's hands while leaving an unsightly line of dirt under the fingernails will only serve to highlight the problem of dirty fingernails.
In light of the foregoing, what are needed are apparatus and methods for cleaning the gaps under a persons fingernails that alleviated the foregoing difficulties.
More specifically, what are needed are apparatus and methods for cleaning fingernails that provided a more precise and well-focused scrubbing action compared to manual brushes.
In addition, what are needed are apparatus and methods that allowed one to obtain clean under the fingernails in a far shorter time frame compared to manual procedures.
Further, what are needed are apparatus and methods that provided fast and reliable cleaning under one's fingernails while minimizing effort and concentration on the part of the user.
Such apparatus and methods for cleaning a person's fingernails are disclosed and claimed herein.